New wildlife agency in jeopardy after cutbacks
England’s high-profile new wildlife agency, charged with bringing rare and endangered species back from the brink, is being crippled before it starts by massive budget cuts demanded by the Government, its chairman says.
Sir Martin Doughty, the chairman of Natural England, which begins operations in the autumn, has made an outspoken behind-the-scenes protest about the size of the funding cutbacks.
In a private letter to the Environment Secretary, David Miliband, which has been seen by The Independent, he warns: “The scale of these cuts risks the wheels coming off the organisation before it even reaches October’s launchpad.”
Environmentalists too are up in arms about the proposed cutbacks, fearing that they will deal a crushing blow to the recovery prospects of many endangered habitats and species such as the corncrake, the once-familiar farmland bird which is all but extinct in England.
“These cuts will put back the recovery prospects for a whole range of species for years,” said Mark Avery, director of conservation for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. “This is meant to be an exciting new agency, but this is a terrible start.”
The Government has made great claims for Natural England, which is to be a beefed-up version of the present wildlife watchdog body, English Nature. But with its proposed cutbacks it is looking at an environmental public relations disaster similar to the row earlier this year over the scrapping of Britain’s leading wildlife research centres.
The new agency is taking over English Nature’s wildlife responsibilities, such as looking after sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs), and implementing species recovery programmes. It is also taking over the landscape and access work of the Countryside Agency, such as maintaining the footpath network and implementing the right-to-roam. The result is meant to be an all-singing, all-dancing agency which can look after the countryside and its wildlife.
But the proposed slashing of its budget by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is putting a very large question mark over its ability to do its job, according to Sir Martin.
In his letter to Mr Miliband he writes: “I am deeply concerned that current financial demands being placed upon us by Defra are eroding our capacity to deliver these benefits before we even begin.
“I understand the need for Defra to live within its budget and Natural England is committed to playing its part in that - we are already committed to £7m of cuts. This is on top of nearly £8m in cuts imposed in December last year. However, [Defra] has now asked us for an additional £12m to be obtained in-year from Natural England and our founding bodies.
“Given that in-year cuts would largely be programme rather than staff-based, this equates to a 40 per cent cut to the remainder of our programme on a pro-rata basis. This comprises a 54 per cent cut to the remaining uncommitted programme.”
Sir Martin said yesterday that the cuts, if implemented, would make it difficult to achieve two key government environmental targets - to get 95 per cent of SSSIs in good condition by 2010 and to reverse the 40-year decline of farmland birds such as the skylark, the grey partridge and the turtledove by 2020. He described the proposals as “most unfortunate”.